Creation's Creators
by N7Dragon5
Summary: Something downright amazing appeared in Garrus and Shepard's lives, but a lot of stuff happened before that. Another multi-chap, rated T so I don't have to change it in the future.
1. A Decision

A decision. That's all it took, one decision. A silly one, maybe even stupid or insane, but it was a decision that was fulfilled.

"Garrus, I know what we're gonna do today!" Shepard's voice rang out across the entire _Normandy_, through the heavy floors and walls and at least slightly reaching everyone's ears. Garrus, holed up in the Main Battery as usual, sighed. It was the same routine every day. Shepard had some crazy idea that she realized too late she would never in a million years go through with, but he was still dragged along. He paused his work on his calibrations and closed the screen, waiting for his commander to burst through the door. The access panel on the door turned red for a moment, then turned green before disappearing entirely as the door _swooshed_ open. A redheaded woman stood there, blue eyes as wide as her grin, adorned in her black jacket, jeans, and boots. "Garrus," she began, "I had the most brilliant idea a second ago." She spoke very quickly, almost too quickly for Garrus to follow, and paced around the room, hands moving about wildly as she spoke to emphasize her point. "I remember looking at Thessia, Palaven, Sur'Kesh, and all the other places, how completely _messed up _they were," Garrus rolled his eyes at such an understatement, "and then the Reapers were destroyed, which ironically made an even bigger mess, and—" Garrus grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

"Get to the point, Shepard." Her eyes were surprised for a moment, but after she looked at her shoulder and found one of the hood strings out of place, fixed it, and looked back at him, she seemed calmer. She sighed to relax herself.

"Right, the point. My point is those places are pretty much rebuilt with just about every one of their inhabitants fixing them up, so I was thinking we could visit." Garrus let go of Shepard's shoulders and looked at her with both surprise and suspicion.

"Visit…which one?"

"Yes!" Garrus buried his face in his hand and sighed heavily. When he removed his hand, it was Shepard's turn to roll her eyes. "What I mean is," she took Garrus' hand in her own, "I was thinking we could spend a year on every major homeworld. You know, cultural exploration, diversity, all that, just avoiding the ones that'll kill us, like Irune, or Dekuuna, or Heshtok."

Ignoring the proposal itself, Garrus remarked, "Heshtok's relatively habitable, isn't it?" Shepard laughed.

"Garrus, it's full of vorcha. Think about that for a sec." He made his own laugh in response, and then focused his attention on the actual question.

"So, you want to spend a year on every homeworld?" He crossed his arms and leaned against his station. "What for?" Shepard let go of his hand and looked at him as if he was the stupidest person alive.

"There's this thing—new invention, and I noticed not too many people know about it nowadays, right—it's called _fun._" She slurred the last word a bit, putting way too much emphasis on it. Garrus laughed a bit, even though he was the slightest bit insulted. "Look, this ship is getting super small, I miss my apartment on the Citadel, and most importantly, _I'm bored._ I'm bored, and I have never, ever, ever been to Palaven."

"I thought you—"

"That was Menae, dummy, you were there."

"You could've stopped by. I mean, you knew I was there." He pushed himself off of his station.

"Oh, sure, I was the slightest bit worried," she said with a smirk, "but passing through never really crossed my mind." Garrus threw his hand over his heart and pretended to be injured.

"Ah, madam, you wound me!" Shepard laughed out loud and playfully hit him on the arm. He laughed back and rubbed his arm, then returned to their original subject. "A year on every homeworld… You realize that every year on every homeworld is different, right?"

"I'm human, Garrus, I stick with Earth-y times. So, 'sit a good idea, or what? I mean, we don't have to land and take freakin' fighters or something to every world, we can just take the ship. How much would the others care? They need a break, no?" Garrus considered the thought for a reasonable amount of time, seeing nothing actually _wrong_ with the idea, but there was the thought of food. On worlds like Sur'Kesh or Thessia, Garrus wouldn't be able to eat anything and would be stuck with the crap that they had on the _Normandy_. On Palaven or Rannoch, if it was part of the plan, Shepard would be stuck with the ship's crap. His mind raced around arguments, and arguments against arguments. Then words spilled out of his mouth as if they weren't his own.

"Ah, what the hell? Let's go."

"Awesome!" Shepard's excitement was palpable; she practically squealed, smile wide, eyes tightly closed, hands steepled together. She ran off as fast as her legs would carry her, and Garrus leaned against his station and sighed…again. _What have I gotten myself into?_


	2. Arrival

It was only a few days after their conversation, but those days were a mess of packing, unpacking, debating on what they needed for hotels and whatnot, packing again, and so on. When they had asked the rest of the crew if they were going to go planet-side—separately, as to avoid looking like an old married couple—they'd been informed that everyone was content where they were. EDI, who had been tirelessly tended to after being shut down once the Reapers were destroyed, was the only one who wanted to spend a little time off the ship, forcing Joker to go with her, and once in a while they'd accidentally leave the intercom on and Shepard and Garrus would overhear their bickering on what to bring or what not to bring. After Joker's mentioning of something Garrus didn't know the meaning of, Shepard blushed a little, eyes wide, and disabled the intercom for whatever area they were in. To make the insanity worse, all of this happened daily.

The _Normandy_ had stayed on Earth after finding Shepard lying in a pile of rubble—the first thing she said to him being "Garrus! I had the coolest dream about you!"—and she stated with unneeded force that they would not start their wonderful journey on a planet they'd been stuck on for almost a year. She knew where she wanted to start, and made no secret of it. She pranced into the Main Battery one day and announced her plans to Garrus first, as she always did, and he was the one with the best reaction.

Now they were staring out one of the windows in the cockpit, watching their first destination grow bigger and bigger while Garrus listened to Shepard repeat the word "cockpit" and laugh.

"Right…there." Garrus stabbed the window with his finger to indicate an ant-sized city on the turian homeworld of Palaven. "I was born right around there." Shepard turned her head to look at him.

"Aww, you homesick, big guy?" she mocked, patting his back. Garrus looked back at her.

"You're so mean."

"Yes, but you're okay with that." Shepard smiled and let her hand fall to her side.

"A little, yeah." In the corner of his eye, Garrus saw Joker pretending to gag, and Garrus smiled a little. Shepard followed his gaze to see what Joker was doing, and she laughed before remarking that he and EDI were hardly any different. Joker waved her off and said they had an ETA of about twenty minutes.

"Awesome, gives me some time to screw around before I'm not allowed to anymore," Shepard joked. She walked past Garrus and hit his back to show the jest was directed at him. A minute later he found Shepard in her cabin, already half drunk and saying her farewells to her hamster and her fish. "You damn well better wear a space-suit out there. I don't know if you know this, but having your face explode is not fun," she said to her hamster. She wasn't drunk enough that she couldn't stand or think straight, but the ends of her words were a little slurred and when she rose and approached Garrus, he could smell the alcohol on her breath. She folded her arms in front of him and placed her weight on one leg. "'Sup."

"I turn around for a second, Shepard. A second." She shrugged and walked over to her desk to pick up the model _Normandy_, plopping into her chair.

"Watch as the courageous crew of the _Normandy SR-2_ swoops in and saves the galaxy!" She moved the model around to make it look like it was flying, adding sound effects by making noises with her mouth. "I swear, we're probably on some super noble 'don't drink 'cause it's bad' commercial somewhere." She turned her head and grinned. "I am an excellent role model."

"ETA fifteen minutes, you guys." Joker's voice came from the intercom. Shepard cursed, got up, slammed the model _Normandy_ on her desk, and walked toward the bathroom behind her chair, the door opening automatically. Before the door closed behind her, she gave Garrus a look—insistent, he believed—and waved her hand with her palm to the side, telling him to leave the room. Before he could react, she marched farther into the room and the door shut behind her, and Garrus left to drown himself in more statistics and calibrations.

* * *

Palaven was almost exactly how Garrus had remembered it. Tall, rectangular buildings, people swarming the streets, and the occasional alien here and there. The buildings at this point were damaged, but not unlivable. Most of the one-way glass windows were still intact, and what he remembered to be the nicer places were fixed up completely. He saw teams of turians around a Reaper corpse, most likely trying to figure out what to do with it, and Garrus wondered as well. The distant sky was a gorgeous burst of yellows and reds, perfectly morphing into the blue that stood above him and a nice change from the sickly grey it had been during the war. Shepard stood next to him, gawking at the scenery and messing with her wet hair.

"I am _so_ glad I'm not drunk. Don't think I'd believe it if I was," she stated, looking around instead of at him. He laughed, loving that she was so fascinated by something he used to see on a daily basis. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, I know where we can go." Shepard looked at him and nodded. They walked away, leaving the spaceport behind them, uncaring where EDI and Joker went. Garrus couldn't help but smile at the way Shepard looked around, wide-eyed and mouth at least a little open, and at the way the locals stared as they passed, acknowledging the presence of two of the people who ensured they were alive. Shepard barely noticed as she kept commenting on the architecture, the way the people dressed, how "geometrical" everything was. Her tune didn't change when they arrived at a massive hotel, repaired and made even more glorious than it had been when Garrus walked Palaven's streets. The light-grey exterior made it look to be made of platinum or silver; the windows were polished to perfection, though no one could see within the rooms; the top seemed to reach the sky itself. The whole place seemed to be parading how privileged and how rich one must be to stay there. Shepard didn't seem to mind; she'd been saving her credits to be able to go to the different places on the different worlds anyway.

"Woah." Garrus had to drag Shepard in by her arm—she was glued to the ground as she stared at the building. The interior was hardly any different. The silver walls and the golden floors were as perfectly shined as they could get, allowing them to see their reflections. The people in the lobby were dressed so fancily, almost to the point of ridiculousness. The way Shepard shifted and rubbed her neck, Garrus was afraid she felt out of place. It was all right, though, because he felt that way too in his armor. Shepard tore her attention from her reflection in the floor to look at him. "Garrus. This place is amazing." He laughed, knowing that was about all she was actually able to say on the matter. He barely paid attention to his own words as he checked them both in—Shepard was far too busy gaping at the place, and he loved the way the clerk stuttered and tripped over his words as he tried to pay the two of them as much respect as possible—and they headed up to their room (Shepard even seemed fascinated by the elevator). Garrus never paid attention to any of his surroundings while walking down the hallway too their room, either. He was more focused on the fact that he and Shepard had never actually gone anywhere together, just the two of them. The thought made him smile. This was only the very beginning of a very interesting journey, and he knew it entirely too well.

And dammit, he was going to actually enjoy himself for once.


	3. Something New

The apartment, even in Garrus' eyes, was absolutely _massive._ To most, all of the light grey would make the entire building seem dull, but he found it to be a silver that simply made the entire place shine. At first glance, the layout seemed jumbled and confusing, difficult to process, but if actually navigated and studied, it was almost simple. The fact that the place was big enough to have stairs was enough to impress him.

Shepard wandered aimlessly about the apartment, never actually appearing to have a specific destination in mind. She'd made a comment on how "boxy" everything appeared to be or how chrome seemed to be "all the rage around here". Garrus didn't understand most of it, but he tried to, for her sake. Since he and Shepard met, not just when their relationship started, Garrus had been trying to understand the human slang and strange terms he found her using. He'd walk into her cabin and find her watching a vid, and upon noticing him, she'd pause the vid and attempt to explain what had happened so far. She would then point out two characters and say that she "shipped" them. He couldn't begin to guess what that meant.

Despite the many differences between the two, and despite the many misunderstandings in words and actions, the two were remarkable together. Liara had said Garrus' easy going manner had changed Shepard into someone who knew how to laugh, but Joker would say it was the other way around for the sake of his "Garrus has a stick up his ass" theory. Neither Garrus nor Shepard knew for sure, but neither cared. Garrus had thought Shepard's proposal before fighting the Collectors was just something beneficial for the two of them, simply a stress release, but he hadn't realized she'd considered it something more, no matter how it may have come across. Maybe even then he felt that way for her, or maybe it was the intimacy of the moment that led him to the place he was in now, but it didn't matter anymore. Now, after the biggest war of either of their lives, they were just two lovers taking a break after being bombarded with bad news and a shitload of death.

It took seeing her sit on one of the many couches, with the scar just above her eyebrow and on the top of the bridge of her nose, staring at nothing, to realize it'd been such a long time coming to just sit for a second and catch their breath. The well earned respect they'd received added burdens rather than lessened them, people swarming their space whenever they were spotted. The destruction of the Reapers, along with finding Shepard alive, had allowed a massive weight to lift from his shoulders, but then fame replaced that. Every child grows up dreaming of becoming famous or just heard; now he scolded himself at the thought.

"You're staring, you know." Shepard's voice interrupted his thoughts. Only then did he realize that, wrapped up in his own mind, his eyes had wandered toward Shepard. Instead of giving him the slightly suspicious expression he expected, she actually smiled at him, eyes holding a shadow of relief. He was amazed she still had the courage to smile, _loved_ that she had the courage. Undead, Cerberus cybernetics shoved inside of her, watched plenty of friends die, and she still managed to smile.

She stood up from the couch, continuing to smile at him, and took his hand. "I'm glad we could do this," she said. "I've always wanted to see Palaven." Garrus didn't know how to reply to that. Seeing his confusion, Shepard frowned, let go of his hand, and walked toward and up the stairs on the far side of the room, disappearing into one of the other rooms. After taking a minute to stare at the doorway, Garrus followed her trail and entered the room. A bed was settled against the far wall, a nightstand next to it, and a dresser on the left wall. The slightly darker red of the walls was a sharp contrast to most of the grey they'd seen everywhere else, but the golden floors seemed almost familiar. Shepard stood at the foot of the bed with her arms crossed, and upon approaching her she seemed to be studying it thoughtfully.

"Shepard," he started, "what are you doing?" She shrugged.

"Inspecting. Trying to see if it's," she looked at him and smiled mischievously, "adequate." The way she said the last intrigued him. He laughed a little.

"We can test it, if you like." She kept the smirk and came closer to him, starting to undo the latches and buckles that held his armor together. He didn't stop her, and he didn't want to; she'd been through enough, and if simply not turning her down would lift her spirits a little, he couldn't deny her that. It's not like he didn't want the attention, anyway. In fact, he'd wanted it for a long time. Might as well get it now. He saw no harm in it, so why not?

He leaned in and kissed her, letting himself drown in her scent and the way her mouth felt against his. It'd been so long, he'd almost forgotten the different feelings; _almost_, as he could never truly forget the way they had first overpowered his senses. Having gotten Garrus' gauntlets and breastplate off, letting them fall to the floor without so much as a glance from their owner, Shepard allowed herself to fall onto the bed, pulling Garrus on top of her. He worked his hands through her open jacket, allowing her to slip one arm out of the sleeve to assist the other, and she pushed the empty jacket onto the floor. The rest was a jumbled blur, as neither of them was paying attention to anything but each other. Their mouths only separated briefly, just to take in jagged breaths as she clawed at his shoulders and back, and within minutes they were back on the _Normandy_, just about to go through the Omega-4 Relay and trying to blow off a little stress before flying into almost certain death. Only this time, there was no death looming over them, no Collectors, no Reapers, no more need for the gun Garrus always kept on his back or the one Shepard kept on her hip. It saddened him that he'd likely never experience the thrill of taking a husk's awful excuse for a life again, but the moment he was buried in now made him ignore the thought, thinking that if he had to give up his life as a soldier for a night free of danger or pain with his commanding officer, well, he believed it was more than a fair trade.

And so, on a night that a few months ago neither of them believed they'd ever see, Commander Shepard and Officer Vakarian, the human and turian saviors of the galaxy, put everything that would ever separate them aside and joined to become one, not fearing or worrying about what would come next when they woke in the slightest.

* * *

The rest of the entire week felt…different somehow. Shepard didn't know what it was, but she got that feeling she got before an epic final battle. Somehow, it was both intriguing and terrifying at the exact same time. For some reason, she actually liked being on edge for the first time in months. She was definitely happier than before—thanks to Garrus, no doubt—but the lingering feeling that something was off haunted her from the back of her mind. She did her best to forget about it, to shove it into the darkest depths of her brain, but every once in a while it would reappear in the pit of her stomach. In fact, she thought it might _actually_ have been in her stomach. Failing to discover what it was, she just assumed she wasn't used to Palaven just yet and it was only her body reacting to the odd planet.

Palaven's markets were busier than she expected. She figured with all of the tall buildings around, the turians—and what few aliens walked the planet—would be within. Instead, the market, its kiosks, and the streets around it were full near to bursting, merchants shouting their wares and consumers explaining, in great detail, what exactly it was they wanted. The actual store buildings were nothing like those on Earth. They were barely taller than their usually six-foot-tall occupants, and whatever they sold was either boasted through window displays or simply hung by a string. The whole place, discounting the aliens, reminded her of Earth's medieval bazaars and how they would have every sort of item shown for every sort of person. In its own way, the business of the place for some reason comforted that feeling Shepard had rather than make her more uncomfortable. That, and she loved the way people stared at her.

After picking up what levo food she could find without crawling back to the _Normandy_—she still had no idea where Joker and EDI had gone—she headed back to the apartment. On the elevator up to the room, however, the feeling in her stomach became a real feeling, one she had no hope of ignoring. It became a clenching pain that made her double over and clutch at her abdomen, and she needed to figure out what the hell it was, and fast. She'd died once, and there was no way she was going to do it again.


	4. It's Probably Impossible

It'd been a whole month since they'd landed on Palaven, and Shepard believed she'd figured out what the problem was. Whether Garrus would like it or not, she had no idea, but she knew she didn't have much of a choice but to find out. The bathroom walls, no matter how giant the room itself might have been, seemed to close in on her as she stared at the little object in her hand; which, if she was being perfectly honest, was kind of disgusting due to what it required.

The fact recently learned that was burned into her brain didn't help her. The feeling in her stomach went from stark pain to nausea and back to pain again. She was surprised Garrus hadn't noticed it. Maybe he had, and he just didn't acknowledge it for her sake. Maybe he thought it was gross. The latter was completely fine with her, because she thought exactly the same way about it. But, if Garrus didn't know, she'd have to tell him, and that'd be awkward. And after that, she'd have to tell everyone else while Garrus either hid or stood next her beaming like an idiot, which would be even more awkward. On top of that, she had no idea what the hell Garrus would even do when he found out. She didn't even know how to say it, how to put _words_ into _sentences._ God, the whole thing made her sick. Or something else made her sick. She couldn't tell anymore. Her frantic thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Shepard, you okay in there?" Garrus' slightly muffled voice rang out through the door. Hearing him made her cringe. She usually loved his voice, especially when he was concerned, but now hearing it forced her to realize she was simply that much closer to having to tell him things. She wanted nothing less than to keep secrets from Garrus…except maybe to actually talk to him.

"I'm fine, just give me one more minute, 'kay?" He hesitated.

"All right." She listened to him walk away and sighed once she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore. She turned on the faucet and cupped her hands under the running water, and then she splashed the water onto her face. Turning the water off with one hand, she rubbed her face with the other, and one thought went through her mind; _Today. I'll definitely tell him today._

She'd have to figure out on her own if she'd actually live up to her own promise.

* * *

As he walked away from the bathroom door, Garrus' thoughts remained with how strangely Shepard had been acting. They'd be in the middle of a conversation or watching something, and all of a sudden she'd excuse herself and dart into the restroom. He knew it couldn't have been something she ate; she had always been careful in making sure it was levo food on her plate rather than something that would likely kill her. A thousand options zipped in and out of his mind, almost all of them completely absurd or impossible, but the only option he really thought made sense was that even after a month, she probably just wasn't used to Palaven. He stuck to this theory, despite the fact that she hadn't been like this even when they first landed, but it was the only theory he wanted to believe.

Now he was doing what he always did when she was like this. He sat on the couch in the room nearest to the restroom and waited. He waited for her to return so he could be positive she was all right and not dead on the floor. Each time he asked if she was okay, she always gave him the same answer as she gave a small smile: "I'm fine, don't worry." Despite his asking her every day and her giving the same answer over and over, she never seemed to get annoyed or frustrated, which he was constantly afraid of. Instead, she seemed to get a little more nervous each time. She started adding waving her hand from side to side when he asked with her eyes closed so tightly he feared they might never open again. He didn't want to take the next step from asking if she was all right to asking what the issue was; he didn't want it to be something he couldn't handle, or something she just didn't want to talk about. Girl stuff, he supposed. Maybe even human stuff. To be perfectly honest, a part of him didn't want to find out. He could find out she was actually dying, likely from some of the dextro stuff getting mixed with her levo stuff, and she had only weeks to live. Though, the allergic reactions were fatal quite quickly, and it'd been about a month. Maybe he should actually ask, just to put his mind at ease, or maybe to put hers at ease too. He didn't know which side he was on anymore. He decided he'd ask her once she came out, just to make him stop thinking about it.

His heart started to race a little when he heard the bathroom door open. He heard Shepard's feet dragging along the floor, something she never let them do. She did it only when she was trying to be quiet…or when she was very, very nervous, and that in turn made _him_ nervous. Was she planning on telling him something, or was she going to bottle it up and keep it to herself. He knew it didn't matter. The look on her face when she walked into the room and the questions in his head told him he was going to figure something out one way or the other.

She stopped walking right in front of the couch, standing over him and staring at something in her hands.

"You okay?" Garrus asked for the thousandth time. Shepard started to nod and opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it and shook her head. His heart sank. "Shepard, I need to ask—"

"I know, I know, that's what I want to talk to you about." She sat down next to him, her eyes still on the object in her hands. She opened her mouth to talk again, closed it, opened it again, and sighed in frustration. "Good God, I don't even know how to start." When he tried to look at what she held, he could only see her hands…and they were shaking.

"Take your time." She shut her eyes tightly and nodded as she let out a jagged breath. When she opened them again, she closed her hands even tighter on the object. The way her eyes darted about, not actually focusing on anything, and the way she pursed her lips told him she was trying to put the words together with much difficulty and little success. Then she looked at him, her blue eyes piercing through him.

"Do you…remember, eh, what we did on our first night here?" She spoke slowly, as if each individual word was a new sentence. He tried to keep from smiling as he recalled the night, so instead he nodded.

"Yeah?" She clearly couldn't think of anything else to say. Instead, she took his hand, opened it, and placed the little object in it. It was a slightly rectangular white piece of plastic, and he had no idea what it was. He almost didn't want to find out. He looked at her, expecting an answer. All Shepard did was point at the object. "I…don't understand." She took the item back and put her thumb over a little square near the middle.

"Look right here." He took the item again—Shepard kept her thumb above the square—and looked at the area Shepard had indicated. In the little square were two pink lines, and in the corner of his eye, he saw Shepard looking at him expectantly. He turned his head to look at her, confused. She laughed, though it was more of a sigh with a smile, and he guessed it was at his inability to understand. She moved closer to him, took the item out of his hand, placed it on the table, and took his hand in both of hers. Though it was probably supposed to be reassuring, it made his heart beat even faster. "That," Shepard started, "is a pregnancy test. And…it's positive." For a split second, after finally realizing what she was telling him, his heart stopped. "Garrus," her voice grew softer, "I'm pregnant."

He didn't know how to respond, so he kissed her instead.


End file.
